Elf Louise to distribute 55,000 presents to needy kids

Updated 1:03 am, Monday, November 25, 2013

An Elf Louise volunteer dressed as Kris Kringle heads into a home to deliver toys to a family with eight children.

An Elf Louise volunteer dressed as Kris Kringle heads into a home to deliver toys to a family with eight children.

Photo: Express-News File Photo

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Louise Locker started Elf Louise when she was a 20-year-old Trinity University student.

Louise Locker started Elf Louise when she was a 20-year-old Trinity University student.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

Elf Louise to distribute 55,000 presents to needy kids

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Elf Louise — that's Louise Locker to adults — finds love in the thousands of toys her local nonprofit, The Elf Louise Christmas Project, delivers to needy children each year and goodness in the hearts of volunteers who make the Christmas magic possible.

The organization began days before Christmas in 1969 when Locker, then a 20-year-old Trinity University sociology student, had a moment of inspiration while watching Johnny Carson read children's letters to Santa Claus on television.

“It was like time stopped,” said Locker, 64, remembering how she decided to find a little girl wishing for a doll for Christmas and anonymously leave the gift on her doorstep.

But after convincing the postmaster to let her read local children's letters to Santa, she found 13 letters that stood out in their pleas for Christmas joy.

In the one that changed her life, Locker recalled, a girl told Santa that the only reason he hadn't given her family any gifts before must be because she had not written to him. What was on the wish list? A few simple things for her and her four siblings, a Christmas tree, which the family had never had before, a Bible for their mother. There was also a bit of advice: “Please, don't get lost.”

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“I just thought, 'What if there's more?'” said Locker of children in similar situations.

There have been tens of thousands more since that first year in which Locker — with help from about 15 family members, friends and complete strangers — gathered almost 200 presents and delivered them to 65 children within a few days.

Instead of combing through the mail, the organization today is a logistical powerhouse with an all-volunteer staff that works with more than 200 organizations to identify struggling families in need of a Christmas surprise.